Thanks to everyone who dropped a note last chapter. I know I'm getting bad about responding to every one, but I appreciate each and every one. I actually wrote this chapter while I was at work with nothing to do. Hope you enjoy!
Chapter Thirty-Three: Recovery
The elevator made a soft ding and the doors slid open. One of the assisting medics lunged forward to stand in the doorway so the doors wouldn't close again.
"Thanks," Ratchet murmured. A mobile medical berth took up the majority of elevator car. Ratchet stood at the head, Lightningstrike just to his right. Three other medics accompanied them. Ratchet pushed the gurney into motion. Lightningstrike and the other medics helped guide it off the elevator. Starfall didn't even stir as he was wheeled into the hallway. He was still heavily sedated from surgery. He probably wouldn't begin to wake for another twenty to thirty klicks. Just enough time for Ratchet and Lightningstrike to get him back to his room and fathers.
Ratchet was sure Optimus and Ironhide were starting to get restless. They'd taken Starfall into surgery early that morning to attach his new wings that had arrived from Vos the night before. It was now late afternoon. It had taken nearly ten joors of intensely delicate neurosurgery, but it had been successful. Starfall had two wings again. The sparkling lay on his front with two miniature wings sprouting from his back. Fresh weld marks ringed the base of each one. The new wings were a naked, dull gray color. It would take several weeks for Starfall's body to fully integrate his new wings with his protoform and his color nanites to spread to the new appendages.
Ratchet glanced at Lightningstrike. The Vosian medic looked just as exhausted as he felt, but she still walked with a self-satisfied spring in her step. It was a look of a medic after a successful surgery. He knew the feeling. Ratchet was just glad he'd had Lightningstrike to assist him. The neural pathways and vast network of sensor relays that connected seeker wings to the rest of their body was more extensive than even he'd been expecting. They'd only managed to finish as quickly as they did by Ratchet and Lightningstrike working on separate wings at the same time. A team of four other medics working in two rotating shifts certainly had helped as well. If Lightningstrike hadn't been there Ratchet would likely still be in the operating room.
At the end of the hallway Starfall's room came into view. Even though the Prime's son had been in surgery for the majority of the day, two guards still stood at their posts on either side of the door. After two reporters snuck past reception the other day looking for Starfall, Prowl has insisted that Ratchet keep tight security on Starfall's room at all times. Ratchet, of course, had agreed. The two reporters were just lucky he hadn't been there when they'd been caught. Both of them would have needed medical attention of their own after he'd been through with them.
"Easy now," Lightningstrike said as she, Ratchet, and the three other medics angled Starfall's gurney to go through the doorway. "Easy. I don't want him jostled."
The three assistants all visibly cowered, their guiding hands becoming even more gentle and cautious. Ratchet had to admit he had a lot of respect for Lightningstrike. Not only was she a highly skilled medic with specialized knowledge and experience he could never hope to match, he liked the way she had no qualms about taking charge of a room and establishing herself as someone to be respected and obeyed.
As the team of medics wheeled Starfall into the room Optimus and Ironhide stood to greet them. The two fathers immediately swept across the room to their son's berthside, their hands instinctively reaching out to touch him and stroke the side of his facial plates. Ratchet noted how they both hesitated to touch Starfall anywhere near his back. Despite his new wings, weld marks and painful looking dents still covered his body. His injuries would be tender for many orns to come. Starfall was oblivious to their ministrations. He continued to sleep in drug-induced recharge.
"How did it go?" Optimus asked, his optics locked on his sleeping son.
"It was a success," Lightningstrike replied. "All neural relays were connected without issue. Starfall shouldn't try to fly for at least a few lunar cycles, but he should regain full range of motion to his wings within the next deca-cycle or two once the initial tenderness of his transplant is gone."
Optimus and Ironhide vented heavy sighs of relief.
"He's going to be groggy coming out of anesthesia," Ratchet said as he motioned Optimus and Ironhide away from Starfall's side. With Lightningstrike's help he maneuvered the gurney up alongside Starfall's hospital berth. With a practiced snap of his wrist he lowered the gurney's side rails. Lightningstrike positioned herself on the far side of the berth. The assisting medics all took points around Starfall's gurney and berth. Starfall had been laid on a thin white tarp after surgery. It was this that Ratchet, Lightningstrike, and their assistants took hold of.
"On three," Ratchet announced. "One… Two… Three."
Together, they smoothly lifted the sedated sparkling and slid him across onto the berth.
"Thank you," Ratchet nodded to the assisting medics. "You can go now. Lightningstrike and I will finish getting the patient settled."
With nods of acknowledgement, the other medics silently slipped out of the room. One of them wheeled the now empty gurney out with him. Working in seamless unison, Ratchet and Lightningstrike arranged Starfall's limp body on the berth and reattached the tubes and wires to the machines surrounding his berth.
"Vitals look good," Lightningstrike noted as she examined the readouts.
Ratchet glanced at the sparkpulse monitor. "How much neural serum should we put him on while he's coming out of anesthesia?"
Lightningstrike fiddled with the buttons on one of the machines. "At least one hundred twenty units. We'll probably be able to lower him back to one hundred by this evening."
"Should we expect him to be in much pain?" Optimus asked. He and Ironhide had joined the two by Starfall's berthside. An unspoken fear shined in the back of the Prime's optics. Ratchet had to sympathize. After days of seeing his son in unspeakable pain, he was genuinely afraid to have to relive such a hellish nightmare.
Ratchet shook his head. "He's going to be very tender, but he's not going to be hurting like he was before. We'll make sure Starfall's comfortable."
Ironhide sidled up beside Ratchet and studied his son's back. "Now that he's got his wings, how long yeh think he's gonna hafta stay in the hospital?"
Ratchet glanced across the berth to Lightningstrike. She would have a much better estimate about wing injury recovery than him.
Lightningstrike considered the question. Dark red optics studied her patient's newly reconstructed wings. "At least another deca-cycle. Probably closer to two if we're being realistic. Given the severity of his injuries and the amount of delicate neural work Ratchet and I did, I want to make sure his wings integrate correctly and there are not any unforeseen complications."
"What are the chances of him having such complications?" Optimus asked.
"Low," Lightningstrike assured. "Despite this being Ratchet's first wing attachment, his work was exceptional. I am confident Starfall will feel well enough to sit up and walk around on his own within a few orns."
Ratchet was slightly taken aback by the flush of warmth he felt at Lightningstrike's acknowledgement for his work. He had been a medic for enough millennia and was so sure of his own abilities that others' praise for it rarely even registered anymore. But somehow having Lightningstrike acknowledge it made Ratchet feel a rush of pride he hadn't felt for a very long time.
Ratchet glanced between Optimus and Ironhide. "Starfall's probably not going to feel like it tonight, but once he's not feeling too groggy it would be good for him to drink some energon. Even low grade would be good. He's been on an IC drip for several days now. His fuel tank it probably bone dry. He'll gain strength quicker if he ingested some energon instead of it being filtered through his system."
"We'll try giving him something when he's awake," Optimus promised.
Ratchet leaned back from the berth with an air of finality. "Starfall probably won't start to wake up for another half joor or so. Lightningstrike and I will come back and check on him then to make sure he's doing alright."
"Thank you for all your hard work," Optimus said, gratefully looking between the two medics. "You both must be so tired. Star was in surgery for so long."
Lightningstrike gave the Prime a tired but knowing smile. "I assure you, both of us are quite used to it."
"We'll let Starfall wake up on his own. We'll be back in a while," Ratchet said, turning to the door. "If you need anything or if Starfall is any kind of discomfort when he starts to wakes, comm me. I'll be in my office."
The Prime and Consort nodded, and with that Ratchet and Lightningstrike took their leave.
As they stepped past the guards into the hallway, Ratchet turned to his foreign counterpart. "Would you like to join me in my office for something to drink? I don't know about you but I definitely need something."
Lightningstrike replied with a coy smile. "Depends. What kind of drink are you offering?"
"I have regular energon. But if you'd like something a little stronger, I'm sure I could find something to fit your taste."
"Do you have double distilled engex, by chance?"
Ratchet smirked. The lady had fine tastes. He was beginning to like Lightningstrike even more. "I have that."
"Lead the way then."
A short walk and elevator ride later brought Ratchet and Lightningstrike to Ratchet's office. Ratchet motioned the female seeker in ahead of him as he turned the lights on. Lightningstrike gracefully eased herself into the chair in front of Ratchet's desk with a tired groan as Ratchet busied himself at his private energon dispenser. He filled two small cubes with Lightningstrike's requested drink. As he'd alluded to Lightningstrike, he had an impressive private stock of energon drinks to choose from whenever the mood struck him. He usually didn't imbibe his stronger stock unless he was off the clock. But considering that Starfall's surgery had been long and trying, he decided he deserved a small treat. His back struts and shoulders ached from leaning over the little seeker's body all day. A mild pressure headache was beginning to coalesce behind his optics from connecting all of Starfall's thread-thin wing sensor relays. Starfall also wasn't going to wake for awhile. He and Lightningstrike had just enough time to enjoy a small drink before they went back to check on their patient's recovery.
"Thank you," Lightningstrike said as Ratchet handed her a small cube of glowing blue liquid.
Ratchet moved behind his desk and sank into the padded cushions of his chair with a sigh. The relief to his back struts and shoulders was instantaneous. Ratchet absentmindedly wondered how many more vorns he had before he was no longer able to do marathon-length surgeries like the one he'd done today. Maybe it was time to start seriously thinking about getting some upgrades to his older internal parts. Primus knew he'd been putting off an upgrade for the last several centuries.
"This is good," Lightningstrike hummed appreciatively over the rim of her cube. "Very smooth." With a sigh the black and silver seeker spread her wings out over the arms of the chair and slouched a little deeper into her seat. Taking another sip of her drink she kicked one thruster over her other. Ratchet was taken aback by how graceful and poised Lightningstrike was still able to look even slouched down in a chair with one drink in her hand and her face shadowed with fatigue. Even after joors in surgery, she still somehow managed to maintain an air of elegance around her.
Damn seekers and their almost unworldly grace…
"I know you haven't had any opportunities to see much outside of the hospital, but how are you finding Iacon so far?" Ratchet asked conversationally as he took a sip of his drink.
Lightningstrike offered him a dry smile. "I rarely see anything outside of the walls of a hospital even back in Vos. Even on my days off, I always seem to get called back in for some emergency or other." Taking another sip of her drink, Lightningstrike met Ratchet's optics, her demeanor becoming more serious. "Joking aside, my trip here had been much less painful than I was expecting."
Ratchet quirked an optic ridge at her. "How so?"
"Ever since the end of the Great War seekers have not exactly been welcome outside of Vos. If it wasn't for the Prime's son, I doubt the Emirate would have ever sent Lord Cloudbreaker to try and reestablish relations with other city-states and rejoin the High Council. When the Emirate ordered me to come to Iacon, I was expecting to be met with some hostility."
"From me or others of the hospital staff?"
"Both," Lightningstrike shrugged. "But I suppose you more than anyone. You have a reputation even in Vos as being an extremely skilled medic. Your work during the war was legendary, even among your enemies. As one who had been Chief Medical Officer on the Prime's command ship, I suppose I thought you wouldn't take kindly to an outsider – not to mention a former Decepticon – coming into your hospital and taking charge of your patient."
Ratchet could only stare at Lightningstrike for a moment of shocked silence. His spark contracted with a rush of hurt.
"I pride myself in not letting politics get in the way of my work," he tightly replied. "I wasn't going to be able to repair Starfall by myself. When Optimus asked me if I was open to bringing in an outside specialist I had a feeling it would be a seeker. I try not to look at frame-types. Being prejudiced was one of the reasons we spent four million years fighting a war. All I cared about when you arrived was if you were a good medic, and you have exceeded all my hope and expectations. I'm very glad you came to Iacon."
Lightningstrike studied Ratchet for a long moment of silence, her optics seeming to pierce straight through his body as though searching for any sign of deception. Finally, she broke her gaze and gave Ratchet a small smile. "Thank you, Ratchet. That is very nice to hear. I take extra pride in what you said because you don't strike me as a mech who gives out compliments often."
Ratchet took a small sip of his drink. "I don't."
Fighting down a small smile, Lightningstrike shifted in her seat and recrossed her legs the opposite way. It suddenly felt like a wall they hadn't even realized was between them disappeared. Feeling more comfortable with his foreign consultant, Ratchet no longer felt like he was speaking to a fellow medic, but more like a new friend. He leaned back in his seat and stretched his legs out underneath his desk. "Tell me, where did you serve during the war? In all the time we were shooting at each other I can't say I ever saw a Vosian medic picking up the pieces. Before meeting you, I wasn't even sure Vos had any medics."
Lightningstrike gave a dry snort, her lips quirking with an ironic smirk. "Of course there are seeker medics. It was just that before the war most medics trained and worked inside of Vos. There really wasn't much need for medics trained to deal with wing injuries when there weren't that many bots with wings to speak of outside of Vos. Then when Enforcers began to crack down on minority models, those who were outside of Vos returned. It was dangerous for fliers to be in other cities once Megatron started to build his army of followers.'
"By that time, I was head of Vos's main hospital and personal medic to the Emirate. She resisted declaring Vos a Decepticon city-state for the longest time. But as the Decepticons became stronger and stronger and the rest of the planet became more and more turned against minority models and those with military builds she realized Vos wouldn't be welcome among Megatron's resisters, nor would Megatron stand for Vos to remain a neutral city-state. It was a situation of choosing the lesser of two evils that had the greater chance of her people gaining a higher status in Cybertronian society. The Emirate's great nephew being one of Megatron's top officers also certainly must have helped sway her decision...'
"Once Slipstream declared Vos loyal to the Decepticons, the entire city became part of the war machine. Every Vosian citizen became a de facto Deception combatant. Fliers who were part of Vos's Air Defense Force came under the command of Megatron along with all of Vos's available resources – medics included. The hospitals' top staffs were conscripted to the army. Some resisted. But those who did were never heard from again… I and several colleagues were sent to a Decepticon outpost on Delphi XI. I spent the majority of the war there patching up bullet wounds and laser burns. I almost got court marshaled several thousand vorns before the official end of the war for giving medical attention to a squad of rookie Autobot recruits fresh out of basic training. They'd been sent to scout our outpost on Delphi, but managed to get into a firefight with sentries and captured. Several of them were critically wounded during the fight before they were brought in.'
"The commander of Delphi XI's outpost was a stupid brute of a mech named Detach. He embodied all the negative stereotypes of a Decepticon: violent and ruthless with an intense hatred for anyone with an Autobot brand. He would have let those injured mechs die in a cell if I hadn't disobeyed orders and patched them up. By that point of the war I was so sick and tired of death and needless suffering I didn't care what side anyone fought for. They were all just bleeding injured bodies to me that needed fixed. Detach tried to court marshal and execute me for aiding and abetting enemy combatants in a war zone. Called me a traitor to the Decepticon cause – like that actually meant anything to me. It was just lucky one of the other medics I worked with had the foresight to report what happened to one of the Vosian Air Force commanders in the area, who passed it up the chain of command. Word reached the Emirate and – from what rumors say – she patched a line in directly to Shockwave himself and threatened to retake direct command of her citizens and declare Vos neutral if I was put on trial or harmed in any way. Within an orn, Detach was reassigned to another post and I spent the rest of the war on Delphi XI until word finally reached us that the Prime had defeated Megatron in battle and the Great War was officially over."
Ratchet mulled Lightningstrike's story over for a long moment of silence.
"Even though you were part of the war, it sounds like you were lucky. You managed to stay away from the worst of the fighting. Delphi XI was only ever a secondary battlefront."
"I still saw my fair share of carnage and death."
Lightningstrike and Ratchet's optics met and a look of unspoken understanding passed between them. Both of them had seen horrors few others could ever come close to understanding. Even if they were only medics they still had seen the long-reaching consequences of war and its violence.
"At least you almost got court marshaled for something worthwhile," Ratchet said, taking a deep swig of his drink. "I got in trouble several times myself for repairing enemy combatants."
"I suppose," Lightningstrike listlessly shrugged. "Those Autobots I saved were later used in a prisoner exchange. They made it safely back to their own side, but I'm sure they were sent back out to the frontlines the very next day. I sometimes wonder if I actually saved them or if I just delayed them from dying from a shot to the sparkchamber by a few days. And not just enemy combatants, either. I had that thought a lot of times over the course of the war for those I patched up on my side too."
Ratchet quietly nodded his head. "I had that same thought myself countless times… It's hard to say if what we did during the war ever really did any good in the long run."
"At least it's finally over," Lightningstrike said, draining the last of her drink with a snap of her wrist. "Nowadays, the worst cases I usually see are accidents – no more battle wounds. And for that I'm happy."
"Unless you count injuries inflicted from left over prejudices from the war…" Ratchet solemnly pointed out, thinking of the sparkling laying in his berth one floor below them. "Even after all this time there's still so much festering hatred and resentment for what happened during the war. If people would only realize their prejudice was part of the original problem. After what happened to Starfall I wonder if anything's really changed since Megatron started his revolution."
"It's terrible what happened to the Prime's son, but I like to think that some things have changed. There will probably always be leftover hatred for my people and other minorities, but the reaction of people around the planet – a lot of them ground-based majority models – towards what happened to the Prime's son makes me think things will be better this time around."
Ratchet tilted his head at Lightningstrike. "You didn't initially strike me as such an optimist."
Lightningstrike smiled. "After everything I've seen and lived through I'm kind of surprised myself for thinking so, but it's true. I truly want to believe that someday after all this is over I'll be able to come back to Iacon and be able to walk the streets or fly over the city without anyone thinking it strange to see a seeker outside of Vos."
Ratchet held Lightningstrike's optics with his own. "I'd like you to be able to do that someday too."
Casting Ratchet a small smile, Lightningstrike set her cube on the edge of Ratchet's desk. "Starfall is probably starting to wake up. Shall we go check on him?"
Ratchet glanced at the chronometer on the far wall. "Yes," he agreed and drained what little remained of his drink. He set his empty cube beside Lightningstrike's and stood.
As they headed for the door, Ratchet self-consciously cleared his throat line. "Despite the heavy subject matter, this was enjoyable. Before you leave Iacon would you like to go with me sometime to a bar and get a proper drink? I could even show you some of Iacon's more popular sights. I'd hate for you to go back to Vos and not be able to say you saw something besides the hospital."
Lightningstrike glanced at him, the glint of something unreadable sparkling in the back of her optic. "I'd like that."
OOOOOOOO
The next morning
"Everything looks good," Ratchet said, straightening from over his patient. Starfall lay on his front on the berth, his wings exposed to Ratchet and Lightningstrike's clinical gaze. "The welds look like they're integrating well with Starfall's frame and his vitals all seem to be improving. How did he sleep last night?"
"Very well," Optimus replied from the side of the room. Ironhide stood close beside him. "He didn't wake again after you and Lightningstrike came to check on him."
Ratchet nodded and hummed thoughtfully under his breath. He turned his attention back to his patient. Ironhide watched the two medics move around his son, searching from any sign of discomfort from Starfall. Ratchet and Lightningstrike were well into their morning examination and except for greeting their calls to wake enough for them to talk to him with a reluctant groan, Starfall remained passive to their ministrations. He seemed to be in no sort of pain or discomfort. Ironhide expected him to fall back into recharge the moment Ratchet and Lightningstrike let him be again. Whatever they had him on, it saved Starfall from feeling any major discomfort, but it also left him extremely tired and groggy whenever he did wake up. Ironhide wasn't sure how he felt about it. He was glad Starfall wasn't in pain. But at the same time, he didn't like seeing his son so drugged and unsure of his surroundings that Ironhide wondered if the little seeker really knew where he was.
Lightningstrike held a small palm-size machine in her hand. In her other she held a thin rod that attached to the box-shaped machine by a spiral cord. She brushed this rod slightly over the top of Starfall's new wings. As she moved it along the length of his wings, they twitched and rose as though they were being shocked by small electrical charges. The only thing stopping Ironhide from darting forward and demanding that the female seeker stop was that Starfall seemed completely unaffected by the device, like he didn't even feel what she was doing. He just continued to lay there in a groggy half-awake state and let Ratchet and Lightningstrike do what they wanted without protest.
Lightningstrike finally leaned back and returned the device to a sub-space compartment on her forearm. "Starfall's new sensor relays are all responding. He will still need some physical therapy before he can fly, but as of now his wings seem to have synched correctly with his systems."
"That is excellent to hear," Optimus sighed. His shoulders seemed to sag, as though finally releasing a breath of pent up energy he hadn't even been aware he'd been holding in until now.
Ironhide nodded in agreement and sent a comforting pulse of reassurance across their bond to his sparkmate.
"Should Star be this groggy?" Ironhide asked, his optics straying to his son's form. He still looked extremely small and vulnerable even with his new wings. It was a fight now to not go to his son's side and pick up him. Ironhide's protective protocols made him want to hold his son so nothing could ever hurt him again.
Lightningstrike came around the side of the berth to stand beside Ratchet. "We want to make sure he remains comfortable. Especially after such invasive surgery. We can probably start to scale down his pain meds more in a few orns, but for now it's better if he remains like this. His wings are integrating with his systems, but the connections are still new. If he starts to move around too much he could tear his welds and damage the new sensor relays. Keeping him like this helps ensure he doesn't accidentally move to much and hurt himself."
It made sense to Ironhide, but it still made him uneasy to see his son so drugged.
"Can I see 'em?" a garbled voice drifted from the berth. Everyone turned to see Starfall groggily staring up at them. His voice was thick with sleep. "My wings, I mean… Can I see 'em?"
Optimus came to Starfall's side. "Not yet, Star. We don't have a mirror and you shouldn't try to move around too much. You could hurt yourself."
"Oh… okay," was Starfall's half-conscious reply. He heavily flickered his optics. He seemed on the verge of sleep again. He couldn't seem to stay awake for more than twenty minutes at a time.
"Don't worry, Star," Ironhide soothed, joining his sparkmate at their son's berthside. "They look good. Give 'em a fresh coat 'a paint an' yeh'll never know they're new."
Starfall sleepily smiled against the berthmat.
Ratchet turned to Optimus. "Did you try getting Starfall to drink any energon?"
Optimus and Ironhide both shook their heads. Fuel had been the last thing on their minds the night before. They had both been more worried about making sure their son wasn't in any pain. Although Starfall hadn't woken at any point during the night, Optimus and Ironhide had taken turns staying awake by Starfall's side in case he did. The memory of the last few orns was still too fresh in their memories to do otherwise.
"He should try and get something in his fuel tank," Lightningstrike cautioned. "The longer he goes with a dry tank the more uncomfortable it's going to be when he finally tries to refuel."
"I don't want anything…" Starfall sleepily murmured from the berth.
"Come on, Star. Just a few sips," Ironhide coaxed. He leaned down over the side of the berth to gently cup the back of Starfall's helm. "You'll feel better after you get some fuel into you."
"No," Starfall stubbornly mumbled. "Don't want any…"
"You have to get something in you," Optimus insisted.
Starfall rolled the front of his helm heavily back and forth against the berthmat. He refused to online his optics to look at them. "Don't want any… My tank hurts just thinking about energon."
"How 'bout something else?" Ironhide suggested.
Starfall blinked dim turquoise optics online and stared up at him. "Like what?"
"Whatever yeh want. Maybe some kind of snack?"
"Like a rust stick?" Starfall asked. There was the tiniest hint of interest in his voice.
"Sure. Ah'll get yeh a rust stick if that's what'cha want. But yeh hafta promise me yeh'll actually eat it if ah get it."
"I promise."
"Alright." Ironhide glanced at Ratchet. "Where's the closest place ah can get a rust stick?"
"There are vending machines on all the patient floors. I'm sure there's at least one with rust sticks."
Ironhide glanced at Optimus. "Ah'll be back." With that mission in mind, Ironhide strode out of the room in search of his son's desired source of energy.
Unfortunately, what Ironhide expected to be a short walk down the hall and back proved to be a thirty klick endeavor of frustrating proportions. None of the vending machines on Starfall's floor had any rust sticks and neither did the floor above. There were other things inside Ironhide thought Starfall might like on a normal day, but Starfall had specifically asked for a rust stick and even if that meant braving the crowd of reporters camped outside the hospital to go to the nearest convenience store, Ironhide was going to find Starfall a rust stick.
Luckily, when Ironhide took the lift to next floor he found a machine with the desired treat. Victorious with treat in hand, Ironhide hurried back to his son's room. Ratchet and Lightningstrike had left by the time he returned. Optimus had pulled a chair up beside Starfall's berth. Although both of them had managed to get a fair amount of recharge the night before, his sparkmate's face was still shadowed with fatigue and stress. Ironhide doubted either of them were going to get a real night's recharge until they were able to take Starfall home and sleep in their own berth. Only then would this nightmare finally be over.
"Did you find one?" Optimus asked.
"Yea. Had to scour three different floors ta find one, but ah did. Got yeh one too if yeh feel like it."
Optimus gave his sparkmate a grateful smile. Although his battle mask was still in place from Ratchet and Lightningstrike's visit, Ironhide could feel it across their bond.
"Here," Ironhide said, holding out one of the packaged goodies to his sparkmate.
"Thank you," Optimus said, sub-spacing it for later.
"Star?" Ironhide gently called, leaning over the side of Starfall's berth. "Star, ah got yer treat fer yeh."
Starfall groaned in the back of his throat before two dim points of turquoise tiredly blinked on. "Daddy?"
It was still a stab to the spark every time Ironhide heard Starfall answer him. For so long he'd thought he'd lost his son forever. "Right here, Star. Come on. Yeh think yeh can sit up? Yeh need ta eat."
With Optimus and Ironhide's help, Starfall groggily rolled onto his side. He whimpered softly at the movement – his facial plates crinkling together at the seams – but he did not cry out in true pain. Ironhide was careful to avoid touching Starfall near his new wings. Lightningstrike had cautioned them the night before that they were going to be extremely tender for the next deca-cycle or two. Starfall whimpered as his fathers pulled him into a sitting position. Ironhide nodded Optimus away once Starfall was situated, but remained close beside his son with one hand holding him up at the base of his neck. He awkwardly perched himself on the edge of Starfall's berth to sit beside him. Starfall seemed to have little strength of his own to remain upright and leaned heavily into Ironhide's hand.
"Here yeh go, kiddo. Had ta go on a wild goose chase fer it."
"Thank you," Starfall mumbled. It took Starfall several tries before his fingers finally found the edges of the wrapper to tear it open. Half asleep, the little seeker sucked on the end of the rust stick. With a happy murmur, he sagged against Ironhide's side. Ironhide was overcome by a wave of possessiveness as he held his son close, always mindful of the freshly attached wings hanging from his back. Having the warmth of his son's body pressed against his side helped sooth away the stress of the last few orns.
Starfall had finished only a third of his rust stick when he suddenly held out the remains of it to Ironhide. He looked exhausted, as if the simple act of sitting there had drained him of all his strength. "I don't want anymore… I'm tired… Can I lay down again?"
"Sure, Star," Ironhide said. He took the half-eaten treat from Starfall's lax grip and handed it to Optimus. "Yeh did good. We'll save the rest so yeh can eat it later."
"Okay…" Starfall murmured. He was already drooping against Ironhide's side. Ironhide hoped Ratchet and Lightningstrike were able to lower Starfall's pain meds soon. He didn't like seeing him like this.
With Optimus's help, Ironhide lay Starfall down on his front.
"Anything else we can get fer yeh?" he asked, leaning over the rapidly fading sparkling.
Starfall's optics were barely a glow of color. "Can you or dad read me more of Skyfire's story later..? I wanna find out how it ends…"
"Of course," Optimus said. "I'll read you more when you wake up."
Ironhide didn't know if Starfall actually heard Optimus or not because he was already asleep.
To Be Continued
This last scene was actually inspired by real life. When I was 10, I was in the hospital and had to have several surgeries. After waking up in recovery for one of them the doctors insisted I eat something since I hadn't eaten anything the entire day. My dad went on a wild goose chase because I said the only thing I wanted was a honey bun. Bless his heart, he went on a three-floor hunt and came back with a honey bun in hand. Even though I was drugged to the gill at the time, that memory always remained with me. Thank god for daddies.
According to my outline, only two more chapters remain for this arc of the story before we have a little time jump into the future.
Thanks for reading! Don't forget to tell me what you thought.